Biology papers are widely cited

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In terms of publication citations, the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and MIT are third and eighth in a study ranking the top 25 institutions worldwide in molecular biology and genetics. In addition, Professor Phillip Sharp of MIT's Department of Biology and Dr. David Baltimore, who will be returning to the department next spring, were ranked among the top 25 scientists worldwide in those fields.

The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) based its rankings on the average number of citations per paper in molecular biology and genetics published between 1988 and 1992.

Whitehead biologists published a total of 392 papers during that period that were cited a total of 15,543 times for an average number of citations per paper of 39.7. MIT biologists published 1,060 papers that were cited 27,296 times for an average number of citations of 25.8.

Professor Sharp, who is head of the Department of Biology and a winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology, is 16th in a ranking of the top 25 scientists in molecular biology and genetics. Professor Sharp wrote 64 papers between 1988 and 1992 that were cited 3,735 times for an average 58.4 citations per paper.

Dr. David Baltimore, who will return to MIT as a professor in the Department of Biology in the spring of 1994, is ninth in the ranking. Dr. Baltimore, who is currently on the faculty of Rockefeller University, won the 1975 Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology. During the period of the ISI study he wrote 87 papers that were cited 6,977 times for an average 80.2 citations per paper.

The Salk Institute was ranked first among institutions in molecular biology and genetics with 403 papers, 16,752 citations, and an average 41.6 citations per paper. The scientist listed first was S. McKnight of the Carnegie Institution with 20 papers, 3,006 citations, and an average 150.3 citations per paper.